Music television has always been a hit and miss affair but Vic Galloway hopes he’s found an antidote.
Apparently it's a television- commissioner's nightmare fitting music programmes into a busy schedule. provoking the age-Old quandary of whether music actually works on the box or not. Is it just an excuse for. channel hoppers to search out another soap now Top of the Pops is dead? There's MTV. what more do you want?
There have been a few shows over the years that have captivated audiences. The benchmark is the haphazard. hotchpotch of bands. banter and performance art that was The Tube — a show so bad. it was good. The Word was also part of the pop-culturalist‘s staple diet. You'd put up with some idiot snogging a granny just to see Nirvana tear up the studio! NB definitely had its moments in Scotland. as did Snub TV which really tried to push the boat out. But do you remember the lamentable White Room or the dull-as-dishwater live specials that seem to clog up the 2am slots on Channel 4. Popwor/d definitely works on one level — ie. the cheeky presenters — but does it truly showcase anyone you don't already know? On the other hand. there is the wonhiness of Later with Joo/s Holland or the Old Grey Whistle Test to contend with, both of which I have enjoyed at times and found flat at others.
As this dilemma rages on in my brain. l know that I've entered a potential danger-zone. as l co- present The Music Show. All I can say is that the vast majority of bands in the series haven't made it onto TV before: they're all Scottish and will be fresh to your ears and eyes. As a team. we've done our best to make six shows that are shod. sharp. exciting blasts of live music, videos and news. Now you be the judge and jury . . .
Vic Galloway is on BBC Radio 7 from 7.30pm Thursdays; BBC Radio Scotland from 8.05pm Mondays and ‘Vic's Most Wanted ' from 6.05pm Fridays. The Music Show is on BBC2 from Sunday 5 November at 7. 30pm.
62 THE LIST 7 it} Nov 2006
INDIE TAPES’N’TAPES Liquid Room, Edinburgh, Mon 6 Nov
On hearing the words ‘eclectic’, ‘experimental’ and ‘intelligent’ to describe a US indie act, one would generally imagine their 605 more likely to be tucked away on a dusty import shelf rather than David Letterman demanding they make their first TV appearance on his show. Minneapolis quartet Tapes’n’Tapes however, did just that. Whereas previously it would have taken an act of their ilk months of college radio rotation to even gain a place in the queue, such is now the influence of the internet on the making or breaking of bands that their jump to prime time television appeared to take a mere matter of months.
Lead singer Josh Grier is uncomfortable with the idea of being slapped with the same ‘overnight success’ label as other acts like Arcade Fire and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah that have recently leapt over the Atlantic. ‘It did happen pretty quickly but then again we have been a band for three years’, he says. He is still quick to acknowledge the role the internet has played in shaping their fortunes. ‘The blogs started to catch on in December, then we got a really good write-up on the
JA72
COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 6 Nov; Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Tue 7 Nov
Ken Ramage pulled off something of a coup when be secured an exclusive date for the Count Basie Orchestra at the Nairn .Ja/x . Festival last year. but fans here (“mm now get their chance to catch up ‘ (“9% with one of the most famous groups in jZl//. Happily. they won’t
find a pallid ghost band turning out
a pale imitation of the great years. The Count is gone. but the band is in the sure hands of trombonist Bill Hughes. whose association With Basie began in 1953.
‘Basie called and I didn't believe it was him! I told my Wife. "somebody's pulling my leg!" Wants me to join the Basie band! It turned out Frank Wess had recommended me. At the time l was more scared than thrilledl'
The current band is tighter and more focused than ever. The group has a classic big band sound and fine soloists. and is powered from the drum seat by another
Pitchfork website in February but things just built on each other as opposed to one big thing happening all of a sudden.’
One ‘big thing’ that did come along though was a request by the most famous chat show host in the United States, who had become smitten after hearing their debut, ‘The Loon’. ‘Doing Letterman was a crazy experience’, says Grier. ‘It happened to be the same day our album was re-released in the US so we saw a jump in sales but I would like to think it didn’t really change that much’. Still, if you live by the internet you can die by the internet, especially for a band seen to be sauntering down Easy Street. ‘We’re waiting with bated breath for the online backlash’, says Grier. It’s hard to imagine the bloggers clipping their wings now though.
(Miles Johnson)
To win a pair of tickets to see Tapes’n’Tapes. courtesy of PCL. simply send you name and a contact telephone number to music@list.co.uk by noon on Friday 3 November. Usual List rules apply.
distinguished BaSIe veteran, the great Butch Miles. He has
succeeded in maintaining the c a touch of modernisation.
‘When I'm conducting rehearsals. I'm trying to hear what Basie would have heard. and trying to figure out whether I should change something. because sometimes the way the music is written is not the way you want it to sound. Basie would take the arrangements and change them around to his way of playing them. and I think it‘s important for the leader to inject something into it'lKenny Mathieson)
assic Basie sound with just